Anyone interested in Smith Optics Chromapop sunglasses. Backcountry.com is having a sale 20% and free 2day shipping. Glasses are regularly $209.00 backcountry has them for $167.00. Great price for excellent sunglasses with Excellent Customer Service.

I was in the same boat as you and thought that I'd never pay $200 for shades. But then I started having issues with my cheaper glasses losing the polarization, frames breaking, lens getting scratched, etc.. So, I did some research. I went with Costa vs Smith Optics but they are both good glasses.

In cheap polarized glasses the polarization is just a spray that is applied. The first time you get sunscreen on your lens and have to use water or a cleaner the spray is wiped away. So you are left with a pair of non-polarized glasses. With the higher quality lenses the polarization is usually in between the layers of lenses so that it can't be wiped off.

I have the glass lens Costas and in 3 years of daily use I haven't scratched them yet. I've also never had a frame break but if they do Costa will replace them.

Also, you don't have to go straight from the $20 to the $200 glasses to see improvement. There are some much nicer glasses in the $50 range that you can try. They aren't as high of quality as the others but here are some I've used.

Peppers - prob the best in this range. They have good lenses. I had issues with the frames breaking after a year of tough use. Maybe I am just hard on glasses though? You can get these at REI

Columbia - these weren't as comfortable as others and I found the lens to scratch easier than the peppers. But they were durable and one set of frames floats